Biomimetic glue offers non-toxic underwater adhesive
Engineers have replicated the adhesive created by barnacles and mussels to form a non-toxic glue that sets and works as well underwater as it does in dry conditions.
Developed by a team at Tufts University in Massachusetts, the new adhesive is claimed to be stronger than most synthetic glue products on the market. Their findings have been published in Advanced Science.
Starting with the fibrous silk protein harvested from silkworms, they were able to replicate key features of barnacle and mussel glue, including protein filaments, chemical crosslinking and iron bonding.
"The composite we created works not only better underwater than most adhesives available today, it achieves that strength with much smaller quantities of material," said Fiorenzo Omenetto, director of the Tufts Silklab where the material was created, and corresponding author of the study. "And because the material is made from extracted biological sources, and the chemistries are benign - drawn from nature and largely avoiding synthetic steps or the use of volatile solvents - it could have advantages in manufacturing as well."
Interlocking microstructures are key to superstrong underwater adhesives
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